Discussion or a question: can lies or a bad ....

[Crystal]

Can lies, a bad faith, to be specific be another kind of reality (a man-made reality,for instance, or some other kinds)? Anyone has anything to share? Oh, by the way,Mmerry Christmas to you all.

 

[Dan Luna]

Well, our minds contain many errors. For example we naturally see a flat world and the Sun flying above it, even if we "know" better. Then we might change our minds as to whether a person is good or bad, or beautiful or plain, even when they have not changed themselves. Many other perceptions are concepts, not reality, such as the way we think objects keep their identity even though their parts change - like the way you might "restore" an old car by replacing every single part with a new one and still believe it was the same car at the end. So our "reality" is already man-made and yours might be slightly different to mine. What I don't know though, is whether it's better to see the "real" reality, or if believing a lie could actually make one happier. And if so, which one?

 

[novella]

Can lies, a bad faith, to be specific be another kind of reality (a man-made reality,for instance, or some other kinds)? Anyone has anything to share? Oh, by the way,Mmerry Christmas to you all.

Well, yeah. When you lie you create another reality for the person you're lying to, assuming you do a decent job of it. Just the same way that fiction creates another world, except the fictional world is one in which we willingly suspend reality in favor of imagination. Liars don't give you that choice, though when you get to know certain liars well, you can happily deal with them as fictional entities themselves.

 

[lovermuffin]

when you get to know certain liars well, you can happily deal with them as fictional entities themselves.

I once had a teacher like that. He was a really good teacher, but he lied about everything, his religion most often. The funny thing was, it was a class that discussed problems of knowledge and how we justify our truths and realities to one another. I told him at the end of the year, "I've never seen so much truth in so many lies."

 

[lovermuffin]

Can lies, a bad faith, to be specific be another kind of reality (a man-made reality,for instance, or some other kinds)? Anyone has anything to share? Oh, by the way,Mmerry Christmas to you all.

Do you mean that the person with the bad faith and telling lies makes their own reality? Or the person they influence? I thought it was the latter at first, but after reading your signature, I'm not sure what you mean.

 

[Crystal]

I was truly glad to read all your replies.

To Dan (Dan Luna):
Thanks for reminding me of that point. It seemed that I always tended to forget that other side (negative) side of the reality as opposed to the non-lies reality.

To Novella:
You showed me how lies can be from that special aspect that belongs to a writer. Merry Christmas.

To lovemuffin:
Emm, before I asked that question, I had read an online article that aimed to debate the inherent negation in Sartre's nothingness. The article mentioned about the bad faith (which could be generally considered as some kind of lie). I was led into random thinking of the behavior of lying and other miscellaneous things, such as religion.
I wasn't actually aiming at any specific thing when I wrote down that question. Just thought if I gave a general question, I could get as much as broad information.


I suddenly came to realize that when people told lies, the lies that they told were not aimed to create a reality for the listener or the target person, but rather for themselves.

 

[Dan Luna]

Maybe we need to believe "lies" in order to function. If I didn't recognise my car every time it had a tyre change it wouldn't be much use to me. It's probably time I made another attempt to understand The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.

 

[lovermuffin]

I suddenly came to realize that when people told lies, the lies that they told were not aimed to create a reality for the listener or the target person, but rather for themselves.

Wow, yeah I can see how a liar feels he has control over the reality of the people he's talking to. And how, by shaping this reality, he must also create it for himself, or the people he lied to would realize that he had been lying. Perhaps liers even pacify themselves by doing this, or have fun... something must reward those compulsive liars or they wouldn't keep doing it.

What was that article? It sounds interesting. Could you post a link?